Monday, June 06, 2011

It may be the first book ever to become a bestseller based pretty much on the strength of the title. Chances are, though, that Akashic Books who publishes Go The Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortes, isn’t distressed about the why. From Publishers Weekly:

Calling the book a “fluke hit,” Johnny Temple, publisher of Brooklyn Indie house Akashic Books, said he couldn’t be happier about the frenzy over Go The F**K to Sleep by Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortes, a parody of a kids’ picture book that he’s about to release. The surprise hit title has more than 275,000 copies in print and doesn’t go on sale until June 14.

Temple sounded a note of caution -- unexpected bestsellers, and the capital it takes to fund large and unplanned print runs, have been known to hammer and sometimes financially overwhelm small presses. Temple said that Akashic went back to press four times to get to the total print run and admits he could have released even more copies. “I’m fiscally cautious. Small publishers can be swamped by something like this,” Temple acknowledged, “but I’ve been pinching pennies here at Akashic for so long that we’ve been able to handle it.”